0:00

You're focused on making important decisions

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to take your company to the next level . But

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who's counting ? We are

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Counting on trends and

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insight to move your business forward operationally

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and strategically , focus on

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helping executives achieve their highest potential

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. But who's counting is a podcast

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shedding light on and breaking down critical

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issues and opportunities for businesses

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Brought to you by Anders , cpas

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and advisors .

0:29

On this episode of but who's Counting , I sit down

0:32

with Dave Parmley , president and owner

0:34

of Chesterfield Hotels Inc . Dave

0:36

shares how he got his start in the hospitality

0:38

industry , the early decisions that gave his

0:40

businesses an edge over the competition , and

0:43

the philosophy that helped his businesses survive

0:45

both the 2008 recession and

0:47

the COVID-19 pandemic . Enjoy

0:49

the episode . So when I think about

0:51

industries that were impacted by the pandemic

0:54

, hospitality certainly comes to

0:57

the top of the list . So our

0:59

guests today live that firsthand . So

1:02

, Dave Parmley , welcome to the show

1:04

. How are you today ? Great , Thank you , Dave . So

1:07

Dave Parmley is the owner and president of Chesterfield

1:09

Hotels Inc . Dave has a portfolio

1:12

of hotels , and so we'll talk about

1:14

that . But before we get into what you're

1:16

working on today , what made you interested

1:18

in hospitality ? Has that always

1:20

been kind of a thing that you

1:22

were naturally drawn to ?

1:24

Yeah , so I mean my first job . I

1:26

grew up in Warnsburg , Missouri . My first job

1:29

on my 13th was a roller-skating

1:31

car hop at Sonic Drive-In , I think 65

1:33

cents an hour .

1:36

So you actually did the roller skates

1:38

. Oh yeah , I'm familiar with Sonic and I

1:40

remember back in the day that you still had the roller skating

1:42

you actually did the roller skating .

1:44

Oh yeah , it was optional , but it helped tips a little bit

1:46

, I guess . So it was good . Yeah , entertainment

1:48

value as well , yeah , so

1:51

I did that through high school and then the system manager when I was like 16

1:53

or 17 . And then from there I got a job down

1:55

to the lick of the Ozarks OC to be each and worked

1:57

as a waiter at the OC House Resort

2:00

all through college and saved up

2:02

money every summer . Worked out well , so

2:04

I kind of got to give me the bug to be in resorts

2:06

and hospitality .

2:07

Okay , so that got you , I guess when you were

2:10

and I talk about this a lot with my kids

2:12

some of the jobs that you get when you're younger

2:14

are really foundational for what you learn

2:17

. So I guess

2:19

in those roles did you get exposed , like to

2:21

hotel operations and kind of how

2:23

that works , or what did you see as well ?

2:24

Yeah , somewhat , I was mostly doing beverage , but

2:27

I tell my kids the same thing . And then in high

2:29

school and college and complaining about the jobs

2:31

the jobs you're doing today

2:33

, those define that what you don't want to do the rest of your life

2:35

.

2:36

Yeah , absolutely . And because every experience

2:38

can be a learning experience , sometimes good

2:41

, sometimes bad , but you've got to learn and take away

2:43

something for everything . So did you work in

2:45

the industry for a while before you decided

2:47

to actually start doing your own developments

2:49

and building your own hotels ?

2:51

So I was working at the lake . When I graduated I got a job

2:53

back at the same resort I worked at . It

2:56

was 1983 , right Then there

2:58

was recession going on , unemployment's

3:00

pretty high . But I got a job as food and

3:02

beverage director at the same resort . Did that

3:04

for about a year and then Don

3:06

Breckenridge took over management so

3:08

I worked for him and he transferred me to Columbia

3:11

, to the campus in hotel Columbia

3:13

, right by the football stadium . So

3:15

I moved there and lived there . I was

3:17

25 years old . I lived there when

3:19

I was 48 , daily

3:21

maid service , free food and beverage , college

3:24

, town , living life around me .

3:26

So when you're in your 20s , that sounds like the perfect

3:28

, the absolute perfect setup .

3:30

Yeah , it's pretty good , yeah , so

3:32

I did that probably a year and a half

3:34

, two years . And then Breckenridge

3:37

transferred me at the St Louis to manage a couple

3:39

of hotels , the Daniel and Clayton , vermont

3:41

and South , and then it

3:43

was a callback King's Inn at the airport . I had

3:45

the glass elevators out . So I did that

3:48

, breckenridge , probably seven , eight years .

3:50

So how was the transition from food and beverage

3:52

, where you had responsibility to that , to then having

3:54

responsibility for the whole operation ?

3:57

Yeah , you know it was . You know I went from food

3:59

and beverage director sales , that's kind of back in the

4:01

house type thing , so I kind of picked that part

4:03

up but it wasn't terrible . I mean

4:06

it's pretty good . A lot of people underneath you . All these were

4:08

full service hotels , so you

4:10

got more staff to help you out with some of those other

4:12

areas .

4:13

So how complex is it to run a

4:15

hotel with full service

4:17

food and beverage versus limited

4:20

? And then I guess from there we'll transition

4:22

into kind of your choices of the types

4:24

of hotels that you're running now .

4:26

Right ? Well , it's a lot more staffing

4:28

involved , and I

4:30

half heartedly joke and say that probably

4:32

90% of your headaches , and maybe

4:35

, if you're lucky , 10% of your profit , comes from food and beverage

4:37

. So it's a lot of work . That

4:40

kind of leads to where I started out on my own

4:42

.

4:43

You started young . You got exposed

4:45

to the business . Then it sounds like you had the opportunity

4:47

to manage a couple of different hotels . At

4:50

some point you made a decision hey , I think

4:52

I can do this and I can own my own property

4:54

, I guess . Help us understand . How did you

4:56

come to that decision , Because not everybody's

4:58

made out to be an entrepreneur , I

5:01

guess . When you started out , how did you think

5:03

that was the right thing for you ?

5:05

Yeah , I'm trying to think back to the self-conscious

5:07

path I took . Obviously , I

5:09

was running hotels . I do know that I

5:11

, when I got married , it was when

5:13

the SE the savings loan crisis hit

5:15

in the up . Whatever company was

5:17

, sipc took over all those assets and

5:20

found a deal down in Rolla , missouri

5:22

, where you had to buy 150 rearman holiday in

5:25

that , just had gotten a $3

5:27

million loan on it and they agreed to sell for me for

5:29

$600,000 . So I

5:31

wrote a contract on it and I was going to plan on renovating

5:34

it and move down there . It took me 10 months

5:36

. I never could get the contract closed because they were

5:38

so one handed and no other one was doing . That's

5:40

when they were like down in Dallas and stuff . They were padlocking

5:42

the wrong office buildings . That's how they were . Then

5:45

they finally set up some federal group

5:47

to go with that , they started to sort out the mess . And

5:50

what year was that ? Roughly , oh , that'd been late

5:53

80s , early 90s . Let me see , that's

5:55

, I guess , that point I will be . Back up in

5:58

college I waited tables . By the time I graduated

6:00

I'd already bought two rental houses and

6:03

then I was 21 , 20 . I

6:05

probably had 13 , 14

6:07

different rental units . So I've been buying real estate

6:09

. I was back then . It was

6:11

all these books about how to buy real estate and no money down

6:13

. I was too enough to believe it . So

6:16

when I did it , so anyway

6:19

. So that kind of got me the entrepreneurial bug , I guess

6:21

, to start with , okay , certainly , and

6:23

as you can see , it's a small version to that . But then

6:25

when I finally did build my first hotel , I just basically

6:27

sold all my little pieces and put on

6:29

my ex-one basket .

6:31

So we're visiting today with Dave Parmley , who's

6:33

the owner and president of Chesterfield Hotels

6:35

Inc . So , based on the name of

6:37

the company , sounds like your first

6:39

property was in Chesterfield , missouri . Is that correct

6:41

? That's correct , okay . And

6:44

so you ? You basically had

6:46

some real estate holdings that

6:48

you had and you got rid of those , took all

6:50

those proceeds and then decided to make

6:52

the leap to build a hotel , which I

6:55

you'd never done before . Had you ever been

6:57

, you ever had experience with that before

6:59

?

6:59

No , it was quite the learning curve . So in between

7:02

there's when I told you to stop trying to buy that hotel

7:04

at Rala . Then when I and

7:06

that didn't work out , I'd had my real estate license

7:08

over 18 , so I just went to

7:11

work for so I'm real estate and I got license

7:13

with remax and I

7:15

did very well . Remax realty it's kind of a newer

7:18

type thing where you get 100% of your

7:20

commissions , you're paying for your office fees . So

7:22

did very well there . So I did that probably for

7:24

six years . And then a good friend

7:26

of mine who owns mortgage resources used to own mortgage

7:28

resources . We both commented to each other

7:30

once we said he was a very high

7:33

producer in loans . He said you know

7:35

, both of us are very transactional based

7:37

or totally transactional based . We

7:39

step off the curve and get by at Bustomar and our family's

7:41

got nothing . So that was kind of the impetus

7:43

for building the first hotel . If

7:46

they're going to lease we'd have something that could carry on before

7:48

gone . Kind of morbid at that point in

7:50

age . We're not going to buy it but anyway

7:53

. So that was the kind of concept . So we actually

7:55

ended up having three partners go in on my first hotel

7:57

, Swingley Ridge , here in Chesterfield

7:59

, right across your offices here . This

8:02

was 1997

8:04

. Okay at the time

8:06

, so I lived out here , but the time there's only one hotel in Chesterfield

8:09

, it was the double trade hotel , the full service , and

8:12

we were the first limited service hotel . I'm

8:15

sorry there was residence in also over here , but really

8:17

old residence in . Other than that there was nothing

8:19

. So we opened limited

8:22

service Hampton Inn and it just

8:24

went gangbusters . Okay yeah .

8:26

Cause Chesterfield . For those of you not familiar with the St Louis

8:28

area , chesterfield has really grown dramatically

8:31

over the last 25 years .

8:33

So it did very well and we got our original investment

8:36

back in my year and a half . Very good . So

8:38

from there we just kept moving on and doubling

8:41

down on the next hotel and the next hotel . So talk to us about that .

8:43

I guess , did you ? Have you had the same partners that you did

8:45

on that first hotel ? Have you used you know , have

8:47

you been with those same partners on a lot of your developments ? Or

8:50

do you add , based on the , on

8:52

the you know the individual circumstances

8:54

of the deal ?

8:57

So the first hotel had me and Bob Obermeyer and Bob Jackson , who's

8:59

a remax broker , so there's three of us

9:01

. And then we also did the one in Chesterfield

9:04

Valley where three years later , we built the Hampton

9:06

and Sweets at Lewins Crossing . It

9:10

was a bigger version of what we already had , 120

9:12

rooms versus 91 rooms . But

9:15

this was still 2000 , year 2000s , six

9:17

, seven years after the flood it hit the valley really

9:20

bad back in 93 . So people thought we were crazy

9:22

built down there in the valley in Gumbo . But

9:24

at the same time I was in their planning department

9:27

. It's a city , it's my . Michael

9:29

Stainberg was back there too , planning the world's

9:31

longest strip center down in Chesterfield Valley

9:33

, two miles long . I said , well , you know , they're

9:35

smart enough to be doing it . I guess I shouldn't

9:38

worry about it flooding . And of course

9:40

we bought flood insurance and the difference

9:42

being really the land cost to

9:44

buy something up in the high ground here around Chesterfield

9:46

Mall Back in those 20 , 25 dollars

9:49

a square foot for land if you could find it sack

9:51

, zoning most of it Down there . We bought our

9:53

lot for eight dollars a square foot , so you can

9:55

play for a lot of flood insurance for 300

9:58

years probably and still not be 25

10:00

dollars a square foot . Yeah , that's

10:02

quite a delta in terms of the cost for that

10:04

.

10:05

So what do you love about the hospitality industry

10:07

? I guess you know it sounds like

10:09

you've got a . You know you started out doing more

10:11

customer service , more customer facing type things and

10:13

then you move to more of the development side . I

10:16

guess , what do you , what do you love about ? You know either parts of

10:18

that and what . What really

10:20

keeps you going in the in the development side ? What

10:23

keeps you going in the in the industry

10:25

?

10:26

It's . I do like the front end a lot more and

10:28

then I'm going to realize that the new development

10:30

, the creative side , finding the right location

10:32

and what brands should go there and how

10:35

the numbers all work out . I'm fortunate to have

10:37

a lot of good staff , but my vice president

10:39

been with me for 20 plus years and

10:41

99% times he'd

10:43

make the same decision I would make with 1%

10:46

time he called me . So he kind

10:48

of takes care of the day to day of existing hotels and

10:50

I'm kind of left there and find new opportunities

10:52

Okay .

10:54

So how do you ? How do you do that ? How do you identify

10:57

? I'm always fascinated with that . When I see somebody building

10:59

something somewhere , I'm always fascinated

11:01

. Well , how did they come to that decision ? And then

11:03

also it's you know , when you make that decision you've

11:06

got to get others to see that same vision

11:08

and agree that that's a good idea . So

11:10

walk us through that process for you , kind of how does

11:12

that work for you ? How do you ? How

11:14

do you make those decisions ? How do you spot the

11:16

new opportunities ?

11:18

Well , like I said , in Chesterfield , I actually lived here and I could

11:20

look around and see there's no hotels in Chesterfield

11:22

. I could see the growth here and

11:24

there was no limited service hotels . So

11:27

obviously , location , location

11:29

, location . I'm always amazed when you drive

11:32

on the highway to interchange them in a kingdom city

11:34

or something , where you got four corners on the

11:36

highway exit and there's a hotel on all four corners . Well

11:38

, what's the advantage there ? All you're doing is just competing for

11:40

price between the four of you . So

11:42

try to find a location . As high bearers entry , which

11:45

Chesterfield did then probably

11:47

still does not . As much maybe , but

11:49

one lamb is expensive . The city

11:51

is very picky about the buildings that look like , with color

11:54

standards and stuff like that . So

11:56

the two in Chesterfield are very

11:58

well . Since then there's been quite a few new

12:00

hotels built in Chesterfield but on

12:02

the same hand Chesterfield is still growing . I mean , it's amazing

12:05

that kind of stuff in some way . I believe

12:07

probably in all of St Louis County the most

12:09

undeveloped land available is still

12:11

in Chesterfield Valley for

12:14

future build out . So you can already

12:16

open the paper every two weeks and you see some

12:19

new announcement of sports facility or that

12:21

recording studio thing that built them down here , which is massive

12:23

. So

12:25

that's kind of how we pick it . Find

12:28

a location that's high barriers to entry

12:30

. You're probably gonna cost you more , it's gonna take you longer

12:32

, but at least at the end you got something

12:34

Somebody else can't duplicate easily

12:37

.

12:37

Yeah , so we're visiting today with Dave

12:39

Parmley , who's the owner and president of Chesterfield

12:42

Hotels Inc . So , dave , thanks

12:44

for sharing your story with us today . So

12:46

one of the things I do know you've mentioned a lot sort

12:48

of the Chesterfield area of St Louis , but I know

12:50

you've also got property in

12:53

Columbia , which is where the University

12:55

of Missouri is . So

12:57

the Broadway is your

13:00

hotel there and it's not really

13:02

like any other hotel in the area

13:04

. So describe to us kind of , how

13:06

did you come in to build the Broadway ? Some of our

13:08

listeners may be familiar with it . How

13:11

did you decide that Columbia was a

13:13

market you wanted to be in and then was

13:16

the Broadway a development ? Just

13:18

, was there something there that you tore down

13:20

? Was it something that you built from scratch ? Tell

13:22

us about the Broadway .

13:24

Sure , to get to the Broadway kind of

13:26

got to work backwards here . So prior

13:28

to that I built the Hampton Suites Hotel

13:31

and stayed in Grille right

13:33

next to the Zoo football stadium , in basketball

13:35

arena , and that

13:37

site was actually the site

13:39

of the campus in that I was director sales

13:41

at and lived at back in the 80s . So

13:44

I just told the story . This weekend I was down in Columbia for

13:46

a football game but I told somebody just

13:49

about well , I'm talking about Zoo football and

13:51

how this one little thing could have changed the game one little

13:53

thumb ball recovery or whatever . So

13:56

my son had a little league baseball tournament

13:58

in Columbia 15 years ago , maybe

14:00

longer than that , and they ran a pizza party

14:02

one night . I said , eh , I must get that . I'm gonna drive around

14:04

for a whole time's sake . And I drove by the campus

14:07

in , took a look at it . Man , this thing

14:09

wasn't great shakes . When I was here it was anything

14:11

better . So it took me two weeks to

14:13

track down the guy that owned it . Turned out

14:15

to be four miles away in town and country and

14:18

I called him in the morning . He says oh , you're the first

14:20

person in comedy . I said what do you mean ? He goes I

14:22

just put for sale sign on the campus in this morning . I said

14:24

I'll buy it . They're not

14:26

making any more land inside the University of Missouri , literally

14:28

surrounded by the . University of Missouri , 2000

14:31

feet from the football stadium . So I bought

14:33

it , and then we go around .

14:35

But just so we're clear , you said the hotel

14:37

was bad two decades before the game

14:39

. And so when you got it

14:41

, did you know were you gonna try to operate

14:44

it for a while ?

14:45

Oh no , it was carried out .

14:46

Okay , you knew right from the get and go , no doubt .

14:48

Yeah , I can tell you some horror stories about it . Yeah

14:50

, digress there . So

14:52

, yeah , tore that down , built the Hampton Suites

14:54

there and

14:57

it's been very well from there . Well

14:59

, actually , back in the up , we opened August

15:01

2008 , which I like to tell people it

15:03

was probably the worst time in history to open any business . It's

15:06

also hotel on one month before Leeman Brothers goes down

15:08

. So but we did okay because

15:10

it's location , location , location and

15:12

I knew I knew from working

15:15

there 20 years before whatever that there's

15:17

a lot of demand there and we need a lot of meeting space too

15:19

. Most Hampton's don't have a lot of meeting space because

15:22

they're limited to service , but I knew there'd be a demand there , so

15:24

, but more probably had more meeting space probably than

15:26

95% of the Hampton's in the country and

15:29

it's worked out well . But , yeah , the location

15:31

is great . Matter of fact , I got a call from the , from

15:34

the secretary of the chancellor's office , saying

15:36

it's our hotel is called Hampton and in

15:38

Suites Columbia , at the university

15:40

, it's our official name . She said that's

15:43

about time Chase Daniels came on the scene and his football

15:45

started doing great . So she calls and

15:47

said the chancellor wanted me to call you . It says

15:49

name your hotel . It makes it sound like

15:51

you're associated with the university . He'd like

15:53

for you to change your name . I said really

15:55

Well , I'm sorry , I don't know if they're all letterhead

15:57

printed business cards . He helped me

15:59

. Legal approved it . I said I don't know , I

16:02

guess we could change it to Hampton Suites surrounded by the

16:04

university or Hampton Suites and

16:06

I went inside the university See if he

16:08

likes those better . She got real quiet

16:10

. She just leave it the way he got it .

16:15

Anyway , so that's the way it is to this day .

16:17

Yep , exactly . So it's

16:20

obviously a great location . And I even had

16:22

a reporter that called me and said you

16:25

know you open this new hotel . All the other hotels are out on

16:27

the highway . Aren't you worried about cool Not gonna find ? She

16:29

said not really , cause , I mean , most

16:31

people come in town or a lot of them are coming here because of the university

16:34

business . They appreciate the convenience for a

16:36

location . So I said it's

16:38

fine if you want to stay at the funny hotels out in the

16:40

highway , if you want to , if

16:42

you don't mind listening to somebody as you go by on that long

16:44

and eat it out backstage house . Well

16:47

, I hadn't dealt with journalists most before that

16:49

. No , no , they print the

16:51

paper and they're quoted verbatim . My

16:54

wife's like you , dummy . So I didn't

16:56

know they were gonna take me serious Anyway

16:59

. So

17:01

yeah . So I went back and tore that down and

17:04

it did very well , even despite the

17:07

fact that we had the meltdown

17:09

financially at that point .

17:12

So how long does it take you to build a hotel , when

17:14

I think about all the way from permitting , all the

17:16

way through to actually opening the doors , kind

17:18

of . How long does that take ? Obviously depends on

17:20

the complexity of the project . But what's your general rule

17:22

of thumb with that ?

17:24

Opening soon . So

17:26

the first hotel I forgot we supposed

17:28

to open in February 97 , and I painted March

17:31

one and I painted April on it and

17:34

we opened for , yeah , until probably 20 years .

17:36

Now we did open 97 still .

17:38

So now my joke is , I just put on that opening soon . It

17:41

varies . I mean the construction time

17:43

should be you put a shovel on the ground

17:45

to open 14

17:47

, 15 , 16 months . I

17:49

had Broadway by probably 24 months . The contractor

17:52

was so far behind . But

17:55

then before that you get all the pre-time too of planning

17:57

, zoning , rezoning , you get the financing

17:59

. So three years probably

18:02

. We'll be safe from start to finish . Okay , three

18:04

years .

18:05

Now are you I think I read that

18:07

you're doing you're actually adding

18:09

to that hotel in Columbia .

18:11

Yeah , yeah . So trying to back to the story of the Broadway

18:13

. So I told somebody so

18:15

if my son hadn't had the Little League Baseball tournament

18:18

down there , I wouldn't have been able to

18:20

build the camp down in Sweets , which

18:22

means I wouldn't have built the Broadway either there

18:24

. Once I got the camp in Sweets opened , we

18:26

had every celebrity coming to town staying with us

18:28

. I'm thinking , yeah , it's a brand new hotel , it's nice

18:31

enough , but it's just a limited service hampton

18:33

in it . So I've been hiring I mean so

18:35

Obama stayed with us four days for the

18:37

election . Any

18:40

entertainment person or sports star coming

18:42

through would stay with us . So at that

18:44

time there was no hotels in downtown

18:46

columbia . Oh , there was . It was called

18:48

the redancy hotel , it was . It was worse than

18:50

the campus in actually , uh , condition-wise

18:53

, and it was the old tiger hotel , but it

18:55

hadn't been renovated . And back to the hotel yet

18:57

. So I tried buying that one too . It

18:59

decided not to pursue it . So

19:02

I thought , well , if we built some place , it's full service downtown

19:04

, we'll be on to something . And

19:07

we got such a great downtown columbia the

19:09

people want to be there , walking distance to everything , all

19:11

the activities and concert venues and shopping

19:14

, et cetera , et cetera . So

19:16

that was the impetus for that one . And

19:18

then I was trying to find the brand and I couldn't

19:20

find the right , was going to try to do a hotel indigo . And

19:22

then they turned my application down . Um , because

19:25

they were just expanding that brand

19:27

in the us and they wanted to go into primary

19:30

markets , not secondary , tertiary , just trying

19:32

to get their average rate high enough to some more franchise

19:34

In columbia being a second tier

19:36

town . But then I went to chicago

19:39

and the state of the Hotel

19:42

Called

19:45

the wit a double tree by hilton , is the

19:47

boutique hilt double tree and

19:49

there was only about 20 boutique double

19:51

trees in the country . Really cool . I had a rooftop

19:53

bar on it and why stay there ? So I liked it

19:55

so much that when I'm

19:57

way back I called hilt and said , hey , I had to stay at the wick

19:59

and I do something like that for my I'll

20:02

be a project downtown . They said yeah

20:04

, I probably . So I said why have to follow any color

20:06

scheme plans or requirements ? Color scheme

20:08

a , b or c ? No , you can kind of do

20:10

what you want , good , good because that's

20:12

normally what you only . Yeah

20:15

, right , you got to this color tie on this color building

20:17

. Yeah , I heard , I am no decision .

20:19

So this one you could get really creative with exactly

20:21

and they were .

20:22

Yeah . So she said well , you got to do the cookie . Though

20:24

I said well , I can do the cookie , because double tree is known

20:27

for the chocolate chip Cookie . Check in .

20:29

Ah yes , the the drawer that they pull out , that

20:31

has all the cookies in it .

20:33

Yes , warm cookies . Yeah , I love that

20:35

drill . Yeah , exactly so

20:37

, uh , so I knew . I knew when you look

20:39

at Columbia , you look down , we're on Broadway , downtown

20:42

Columbia . Well , you look down Broadway

20:44

, 90% of the businesses are mom

20:46

and pops . You don't see a lot of national franchises

20:48

. So I really didn't want to build a cookie

20:50

cutter double tree like you'd see at the

20:52

airport , and so I was very excited about

20:55

the boutique branding on it . So

20:57

we did that and picked everything out from scratch

21:00

and we actually got the award the first year we

21:02

opened for worldwide business

21:04

double tree hotel . That was nice

21:06

.

21:09

And so the so you're . So the addition that you're

21:11

doing now , I guess , are you adding services

21:13

, are you adding rooms ? What are you adding ?

21:15

Yeah , both actually . So the current first

21:17

hotel had 114 rooms , rooftop

21:20

bar , which has been our signature item

21:22

, very popular and

21:24

then meeting space wise , we only

21:26

had 3,500 square feet , which I

21:29

think our largest room maybe seats 130

21:31

for a banquet . Well , it means you really can't

21:33

even do a decent wedding . Most weddings are figuring around

21:35

200 people , so

21:38

we just didn't have the space . We're working on a half acre

21:40

land . We built this thing . So the new tower

21:42

is going to have additional 80 rooms , but

21:44

, more importantly , it'll have the

21:46

ground floor meeting room for about 150

21:48

and then a small boardroom , some sales offices

21:51

, etc . But on the rooftop we're putting a

21:53

ballroom with panoramic view downtown

21:55

on the eighth floor that

21:57

will seat 330 , banquet style

21:59

plus pre functionaries . We're almost going to triple

22:02

our meeting space we have now and

22:04

bring hopefully more people downtown to Columbia

22:06

for meetings , conferences . So is there anything ?

22:08

like that today .

22:11

Downtown ? No , not really . There's

22:14

the old Holiday and Executives Center on the highway . But

22:16

that property now it's Mark Rita

22:18

, bill I think , but it's tired . It was built back in the 70s and kind

22:22

of functionally obsolete . I guess you might say

22:25

I'm getting there . So we think downtown is really where people want to

22:27

be .

22:29

So what is it ? I guess what are the KPIs

22:31

that , when you think about whether you're successful

22:34

or not , other than you know what's in the bank , at

22:36

the end of the day , I guess what are the KPIs that you're going to be able to do ? What are

22:38

the KPIs that you focus on ? Is it more

22:40

about the people ? Is it more about pure

22:42

occupancy , or what are the things that you really

22:44

focus on to run the business ?

22:46

Yeah , it's people , business all around . You know

22:49

there's a saying in the business that service

22:51

will always trump product . That's

22:53

true . Luckily the Broadway we've got both

22:55

, so that makes even better . Matter

22:57

of fact , when we built the Hampton and Sweetson Columbia

22:59

we became the market leader

23:02

all around , probably average rate 20%

23:04

higher than other hotels . So

23:06

it's kind of a gene-embezzled position because then

23:08

all the hotels are watching you when they

23:11

go to set their rates . So , for

23:13

example , we see a slow week each Easter weekend

23:15

. We slow , if we lower our rates , all the other

23:17

hotels into the same thing proportionally

23:19

. All that means is everybody coming to Columbia

23:21

just got a discount .

23:24

So how do you ? How do you know that ? I always wonder . That

23:26

is like when you bring your rates down

23:28

. How do competitors know what your rates are ?

23:31

Calling around . It's pretty and you can do star reports

23:34

there . It's opaque , you can't tell

23:36

which one , but you've got to set hotels . But

23:38

you just go online , I mean , every night . You can check every five minutes if you want

23:40

to see what our rates are . So

23:43

, and they do change from being an occupancy like

23:46

airlines . So , yeah , they're pretty , pretty

23:48

tight knit . People know what's going on . So , yeah , once in

23:50

service is the main thing there . I'm very fortunate to have a great staff . All

23:55

my hotels Broadway hotel , I think probably

23:57

two thirds of my managers have been with me since day one

23:59

, which will ever 10th anniversary next March .

24:04

Wow so , and I imagine in the hospitality

24:06

industry that's quite an accomplishment because it seems like people move quite a bit

24:08

within the industry .

24:11

Yeah , turnovers very painful and

24:13

hard , but having managers

24:15

are dedicated there . You got hospitality school in Mizzou , so we get a lot of the graduates

24:17

from there , a lot of the interns and stuff like that , even

24:19

students is working in the restaurant

24:21

who are going to hospitality school . We

24:27

have probably 115 employees to Broadway now

24:29

probably two thirds of my part time

24:31

which makes it hard to keep track of them . I feel bad . I used to know everybody's

24:33

name , first name basis , yeah . So what's your properties ?

24:34

How do you create an environment where you can attract the employees that

24:37

you really want that are going to stick

24:39

with you for the next decade .

24:47

You know , I don't know so much about attracting

24:50

as retaining them , and I think , well , I don't

24:52

know what the real recipe is , other

24:56

than just treat people fair , be

24:58

honest with them , pulling punches

25:00

and be genuine , and

25:02

I think the employees

25:04

have worked for enough bad employers to

25:07

tell the difference that you have to

25:09

tell them what the difference is .

25:11

So when you walk into a hotel , you

25:14

get significant clues about how that property

25:16

is being operated , just based

25:18

on the customer service that you receive

25:21

.

25:21

Exactly , and

25:23

once again I'm not a good

25:25

judge because they're going to know who I am . Actually

25:28

, I go make a point to introduce somebody new

25:31

people to me . I don't know them already . Just

25:33

let them catch them off guard . I'm

25:35

not trying to get you on that thing .

25:39

Got it . So what are the when you think about

25:41

, like the business issues that you're wrestling with

25:43

today ? What are the things that you're you

25:45

know ? You've obviously got this development going on

25:47

, the new tower at the Broadway . I

25:49

guess what else are you you know ? What else are the

25:51

issues that you're wrestling ?

25:53

with Post COVID . Well , labor

25:56

was obviously huge during COVID and

25:58

our industry got hit very

26:00

hard , as you all know . I tell

26:02

people you look back at the previous recessions . There

26:04

was one before this , whatever it

26:06

was in 2008-2009

26:10

. So in that one I call

26:12

that recession there kind of an equal

26:14

opportunity but , kicker , everybody

26:16

got equally smacked down . This

26:18

time around with COVID it was highly selected

26:20

. So you have airlines , restaurants

26:23

, hotels , taxi , gifts , delights

26:26

and other businesses during COVID . Some of them

26:28

had their best years ever during COVID . So

26:30

certainly it wasn't evenly sprinkled around this

26:33

time . So labor's

26:35

been a problem , although our

26:39

housekeepers before COVID they were getting

26:41

starting 9-9.50 an hour

26:43

, which has to be as hard

26:45

as I wouldn't want to do it every day . It's hard work

26:47

and we appreciate that . Within

26:50

six months all of our hotels were paying $14-$15

26:53

starting , which I'm fine with . As long

26:55

as other hotels are doing it . Guests can pay

26:57

another dollar a night for the room , kind

26:59

of a win-win for everybody . So

27:03

yeah , it's been hard keeping housekeeping and

27:05

back of the house . Kitchen is hard to fill . Dishwasher's

27:08

cooked not too much

27:10

from the house in too bad . Waitress is bartenders

27:12

front desk .

27:13

So let's talk about the pandemic for a little bit

27:16

. I mean and you're right , you

27:18

know , I guess previous recessions kind of things

27:20

slow down , but sort of what happened

27:22

with the pandemic , where one day just like everything

27:25

was shut off . I guess that wasn't entirely

27:27

true , because I think even after , like businesses

27:30

had to go home , I think hotels were still

27:32

open for a while but certainly a dramatic impact

27:34

. So how did you , how did you even process

27:37

what was going on at that point , because your

27:39

occupancy , I don't know 70-80% or

27:41

something like that , and suddenly it goes

27:44

to zero .

27:45

Well , we didn't close . We didn't manage to keep our hotels

27:47

. Well , four hotels we managed to keep

27:49

open . The one in Steamboat , the city actually . We

27:51

went out Steamboat Springs . I sold it a couple

27:54

years ago but after

27:56

COVID got over , but

27:59

the city of Steamboat just closed down the whole

28:01

city , all the hotels , for 90 days

28:03

. They were worried about international tourists

28:05

coming in there and everybody's sick , so they just

28:07

kind of buckled down the whole mountain down . Nobody

28:10

welcomed the other ones

28:12

we kept open and we just started

28:14

through . But yeah , you didn't know At the time

28:16

my son had just graduated from Mizzou

28:18

Hospitality because he wanted to get a

28:20

job at the high up downtown St

28:22

Louis . We hold Adams Mark by the

28:24

arch there and he was on the management

28:27

fast-track program which , that's right , decided

28:29

to form . And he

28:31

texted me early first week in March

28:33

, said dad , we've only got one person occupancy

28:35

. Not it is that bad . I said it's

28:37

nine rooms , yeah , that's bad . And

28:40

then they shut that hotel down and then

28:42

he got furloughed like a lot of people , played

28:44

Xbox all night and like unemployment , was

28:46

like everybody . So I told him

28:48

early on I said when you graduate , I really

28:51

don't want you coming to work for me right away . I'm like for you , go out

28:53

and get your job , come here on the way

28:55

and then you come back in four or five years and tell me all the

28:57

stuff I've been doing wrong . You kind of

28:59

looked like what that mean I need

29:01

my radio safe I gotta take four or five years to have

29:03

. So

29:05

anyway , when this all happened

29:08

so you know I told you I didn't want you working

29:10

right away . But tomorrow morning you're starting

29:12

a hotel in the valley . You clean rooms all day

29:14

and do night audit night . We

29:17

couldn't go that position either , so

29:19

it was tough . We did at

29:21

the four low people temporarily

29:23

during the downturn , obviously with all my managers

29:26

on staff though and a good thing . Hotel everybody's

29:28

in hotel business worked their way up from a maid , assistant

29:30

, housekeeper to housekeeper , so they obviously know how

29:33

to clean rooms etc , etc

29:35

. So it was tough

29:37

processing . You had really no idea catching

29:40

the falling knife thing where's the bottom ? You

29:42

don't know how long it's gonna last . You know

29:44

everybody was and didn't know what was going on

29:46

.

29:46

So so what were your conversations like with

29:48

your , like with your , your banks ? I assume

29:51

have you had long-standing relationships with banks

29:53

and kind of one of those conversations .

29:54

Yeah , I've been with the same bank well , eagle Bank

29:56

slash Enterprise Bank they merged together a couple

29:59

years ago but been with them for 20 plus

30:01

years . So yeah , having a having

30:04

a good relationship with your bank is a

30:06

long term it's very helpful . And

30:08

having local banks because I know a lot of

30:10

hotel financing these days is done through the

30:12

Wall Street markets these conduit

30:14

loans were all bundled together and packaged and

30:17

there it's . You know , there's nobody to talk to , that's

30:19

just a , you're just a number and there's

30:21

nobody's gonna make a teeny slack on anything

30:23

or waive the reserve payments for this

30:25

month or something , get you over the hump or help

30:27

out . So having local

30:29

banks will help . Somebody can talk to and they

30:32

do . They deferred our principal payments

30:35

for six months it was interest only on the hotel's

30:37

helped and then behind that we started

30:39

and suspended our reserve

30:41

payments for like FF&E reserves for

30:43

refurbishments and such . But

30:46

yeah , at the beginning we were just shoveling money in our firm this as

30:48

fast as we could and hoping we'd last , and

30:50

then , luckily , the programs

30:53

the government came out with when they

30:55

got time certainly saved our business Okay

30:57

so paycheck protection program

31:00

and employer retention credit and all

31:02

those other things yeah , certainly

31:04

costly , but businesses like

31:06

yours certainly benefited and were

31:08

able to stay afloat .

31:09

So so we've been

31:11

visiting today with Dave Parmley , who's the owner

31:13

and president of Chesterfield Hotel's Inc . So

31:15

, dave , so one of the things we always do

31:17

is we wind down these conversations as we do

31:20

the make-it-count segment , so we

31:22

try to identify , you know , from our conversation

31:24

, what's the one thing that you hope our listeners

31:27

would take away from this , that they would actually

31:29

act on and implement from

31:31

your perspective , just based on that discussion

31:33

. Or maybe it's something that we haven't talked about today

31:36

, but what do you think small business owners

31:38

today could take away from this conversation

31:40

?

31:41

The one I have is kind of

31:43

a tongue in cheek , but my cousin

31:45

used to comment to me signs , dave

31:47

, your toast always lands buttered side up . And

31:49

first time he means to that to me I kind of figured

31:51

it's a compliment or took it as a compliment . And then

31:53

every every year I see we go on float

31:55

trip every year , kept bringing it up and

31:57

I started saying you know , do you have a problem with

32:00

my toast landing buttered side up ? It kind of seems like

32:02

it . No , no , no , okay , are

32:04

you just curious about how it works ? Yeah

32:06

, kind of here , get a pencil , get a piece

32:08

of paper , I'll tell you the secret To maven

32:10

your buttered toast always land buttered side up , butter

32:13

both sides , that's all it is . I guess

32:15

the story of that would be I

32:17

tried to plan for our

32:19

eventualities ahead of the

32:21

time , so that outcome A , b

32:24

and C are all maybe not equally

32:26

good , but all positive , because

32:29

you never know that coast might land once in a million

32:31

times , running the edge too . So butter the edges .

32:33

Yeah , dealing with uncertainty certainly is a is

32:36

a challenge , and , as an entrepreneur , yeah

32:39

, if you can have three decent paths

32:41

, that's probably a really good outcome . Right

32:43

, exactly . So any secrets to

32:45

how you make sure the toast is buttered ? Just

32:47

?

32:47

buy a lot of butter and have a sharp knife . No

32:51

, just this is a thought process . I'm trying to think how this

32:53

yeah , like I said , this is tongue in cheek

32:55

, but planning what could go here , that

32:58

didn't work out what's your next fall back position ? And

33:00

I'm sure a lot of people run busy . You have to do this kind

33:03

of naturally , but just being prepared

33:05

, yeah , that's the main thing .

33:06

It's interesting when we have a lot of these , you know a lot

33:08

of these conversations , and even , just in general

33:10

, when we talk with successful business people

33:13

and you ask them you know , what is

33:15

that secret ? I think a lot of times the answer

33:17

is similar to what I'm hearing from you , which is I

33:19

just do what I do and it

33:21

works , and yeah , and so

33:23

I think that's one of the interesting challenges

33:26

in looking at a lot of small business owners is , you

33:28

know , they just make it successful .

33:30

Yeah , and my brother-in-law . One time he

33:34

came to visit from California and saw him

33:36

at a new hotel , the Broadway , and well

33:38

, we were doing . I guess it's like , dave , what's

33:40

your secret success ? Which kind of

33:42

bothers me sometimes . You see , this younger

33:45

generation always wants to know what the shortcut

33:47

is to success or how'd you get there

33:49

. And so I just text him

33:51

back and say you know secret ? I

33:53

don't know , I just like

33:55

what I'm doing . Number one pick something you like doing

33:57

and not working hotel

33:59

business . We literally , the day we open the hotel we

34:02

throw the key away . So it's 24-7

34:04

. I told him , I said you know , here's the secret . Just

34:06

jump out of bed every morning , put both pant legs on at

34:08

the same time , work 25 hours

34:11

a day , 53 weeks a year . They

34:13

say you know , 40 years from now , magic .

34:16

You'll be an overnight success after

34:18

40 years . Yes , yeah , a ton of

34:20

hard work and things that go on behind the scenes

34:22

. So , dave , appreciate you joining

34:24

us today . Thank you for sharing your insights with us

34:26

and we appreciate it . Dave

34:28

, thanks for having me on . Appreciate the opportunity Great

34:31

, thank you . Thank you for joining the but who's

34:33

Counting podcast . Make sure to never

34:35

miss an episode by subscribing on Spotify

34:37

or Apple podcasts and let us know what you think by rating

34:39

and reviewing . Connect with me , dave

34:41

Hartley , on LinkedIn , and keep up with more

34:43

Andrew CPAs and advisors insights

34:45

by following us on social media through

34:47

the handles in the show notes . We'll see you next

34:50

time .